formula1factsfandomcom-20200213-history
2011 Australian Grand Prix Race Summary
Ferrari/ McLaren Squabble After a few laps, McLaren's Jenson Button found himself behind a slow Felipe Massa and was very eager to get past him as quickly as possible, so that this period being stuck behind a slow car didn't ruin his race. Button eventually saw an opportunity and down the back straight he was quicker due to the slipstream, DRS and later on the brakes. All of this combined put Button on the outside of Massa going into the 11th corner, hoping that he would come through the inside on the 12th. Massa stayed on the racing line and managed to hold Button off, until Button cut the chichane and came through. Button beleived that he was already ahead of Massa, so he didn't let him back through and the McLaren team didn't tell him to let him back through so he carried on as normal. The FIA conducted a race investigation and found that Button illegally overtook Massa, giving him a drive through penalty. All of this made Button finish a dismal 6th place. I do believe that Button should have had a drive through and so does everyone else, even though we are huge McLaren fans. Petrov Drives Renault to a Podium Great Petrov started out the weekend well with a very respectable 6th in Qualifying. Most, including me and others, expected him to finish at around the same position as qualifying, as common knowledge was that the Ferrari, McLaren and Red Bull pace was much quicker than the Renault. Well that proved to be very, very wrong. At the start, Petrov had a great start, moving him nicely up the field. He further carried on driving well and managed to fight off the heavy competition, to finish 3rd. at the end of the race, Petrov said that he was very pleased with the result, but ultimately expected the Renault to be capable of this, when at its best. Vettel Leaves the Competition Behind Another strong performance from Sebastian Vettel, lead to him winning the first Grand Prix of the season, by pure driving skill, a fast car and some great pit stops. Vettel Qualifyed on Pole Position the day earlier by a whole 8 tenths of a second, proving that the team of Vettel and Red Bull are a match made in heaven. The race pace on the Red Bull was also great and Vettel pulled out a substantial lead within a few laps. His timing for pit stops was impeccable, his skill and everything else was just picture perfect... annoyingly. Double Trouble For Mercedes Mercedes started of the season in a bad way. They didn't Qualify particularly well and then in the race they had 2 DNF's. Michael Schumacher retired on the 19th lap with puncture damage and Nico Rosberg only moments later on the 22nd lap. He retired due to accident damage, following a crash with Rubens Barichello's Williams. Rosberg tried to come up the inside of the Williams, coming into turn 3 and came about halfway alongside the other car. Barichello turned in and span round due to the force of the Mercedespushing it around. Later, for causing th incident, Rosberg was punished with cooling issues, leading to an early retirement. Hamilton Lighting Up the Way At the race, Lewis Hamilton was doing quite well up in second, when he went wide into turn 9 and drove across the grass. At first people thought that this was just a driver error, then they noticed that his undertray was dragging along the ground, aparrently just fallen off. Since he had no accident earlier it was concluded that the undertray just wasn't fitted correctly and as a result it sparked all along the ground. There had been no issues earlier in the weekend so it was just put down to incorrectly fitted bodywork. This didn't affect Lewis through any part of the race as he managed to finish a strong second with nobody right behind him. His lap times were fine and he was racing great, so all we say is well done to Lewis, a great job! Alonso and Webber Battle During Qualifying, Webber came 3rd and Alonso came 5th, which was positive from the Red Bull team, but not too amazing for Alonso. After a few laps into the race the one place difference became zero and Alonso was right on the back of Webber, confusing everyone that the Ferrari had better race pace than the Red Bull. When they came into the pits the Ferrari was right on the back of the Red Bull; still and Alonso's pit crew made short work of changing the tyres, with great results, that got him out infront of Mark Webber. Webber's pit stop was still very respectable, but not as high a class as the Ferrari one, so he lost out. Despite pushing Alonso across the line, Webber didn't manage to pull off an overtaking manouevre so he finished a dismal 5th.After the race with Alonso with 4th and Webber in 5th, the Red Bull team had to be honest and say that they were disappointed with 5th place in the race, whereas great results in the pit stop got Alonso ahead of Webber, made 4th a very proud result. Perez's Debut Great Sergio Perez had an action packed weekend with many amazing things for a rookie and a sole disappointment. Perez started off the weekend with a very good first ever Qualifying session in 13th place for the race. When it came to Sunday, amazements included the Sauber of Sergio Perez right behind the Works Ferrari of Massa, which amazed all, especialy as Perez is a possible sucessor to Massa at Ferrari. This is because he is part of the Ferrari Drivers Club. Perez also managed to string the life of the Pirelli's out and just do a one stop strategy. As a result of this he finished an amazing 7th position on his debut race in Formula 1. Unfortunately Perez was later disqualified, as was his teammate Kamui Kobayashi, for rear wing infringements. The problem was that the rear wing used was deemed illegal by the FIA as it was too thin. It was only marginally under the regulations and the team was very disappointed with the result. However the team were still extremely pleased that on his debut race Perez clinched 7th. Category:Seasons Category:2010-19 Seasons Category:2011 Season Category:Australian Grand Prix Category:Race Summary